B.C. retailers concerned by renewed mask mandate, staff policing customers

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — The retail sector in B.C. is not overly pleased with the return to a province-wide mask mandate and is worried about the effects it could have on staff.

Greg Wilson with the Retail Council of Canada says store owners don’t want their staff to have to police the new masking requirements.

“Our view is that government is transferring the responsibility to business and employers, where government could easily have put in a vaccination mandate themselves.”

On Tuesday morning, B.C.’s top doctor reintroduced province-wide mask requirements for everyone 12 years and older. Starting Wednesday, masks will be required in places such as malls, public transit, as well as pubs and bars.

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Dr. Bonnie Henry says the mandate comes as COVID-19 transmissions have increased. Over the weekend, B.C. recorded 1,711 cases of COVID-19.

Wilson is especially concerned about retail workers having to ask customers about whether they are vaccinated or not.

“The difficulty is we don’t want to be asking customers about their vaccination status, nor do we want arguments with people about wearing a mask,” he says. “I understand that they have the public health expertise, and they have the ability to order [the mandate], but it seems to me, they could also order everybody to have a vaccination,” Wilson said.

The mask mandate comes after the province announced the introduction of a vaccine passport Monday to start Sept. 13, which will exclude unvaccinated people from a wide range of non-essential activities, such as going to the movies, indoor concerts, sporting events, and restaurants.

Wilson says he expects most retailers will abide by the new mask order, but doesn’t expect to see staff guarding the front doors of shops.

“Hiring in retail is very difficult at the best of times. In British Columbia, there’s a lot of demand for retail employees, it will be difficult to find those employees, it will be particularly difficult to find those employees on short notice,” he said.

Meantime, the CEO of a Vancouver-based company is pitching his digital signage as a way to minimize potential conflict over mandatory masks in retail stores, and to help businesses keep up with swiftly-changing health orders.

Kyle Hall, with INEO Solutions, says there is an urgency and unpredictability to the sorts of messages businesses need to communicate to their customers during the pandemic. He sees an opportunity to expand his digital signage business while easing some of the burden on retail workers.

“It’s never a good thing to greet your customer with a negative message right, like ‘Hey! Stop, put a mask on!’ Greeting them with nice big, bold, bright signs that says ‘Masks mandatory to enter our store,’ it kind of heads off some of that conflict with the customer,” Hall said.

“It takes that anxiety away from the staff having to be right there to make sure the customer knows that message.”

And while new rules might require businesses to shell out cash for new signs, the digital option means it can be quickly reprogrammed.

“The retailer can change the message that they want to display to the customer at will, at the push of a button,” he said.

“It’s a fluid situation out there and I think everybody’s scrambling.”